When it comes to moving, for a lot of people it's all about location. They oftentimes ask themselves questions like: are there great schools in the area? What is the crime rate like? And is there ample shopping close by? But for people with disabilities, the questions they ask are more focused on other needs such as whether an area has affordable housing, easily accessible facilities and quality health care nearby.
For people with disabilities or parents of children with disabilities, it may be important to do research on an area before buying a home. But how do you look up such information? How do you know you're moving to an area that is disability friendly?
One way would be to look at WalletHub's most recent ranking of cities in our country. Based on a 21-metric evaluation, WalletHub looked at things like cost of living and access to health care in order to determine the best and worst cities to live in the United States. Though the list may be helpful to people across the nation who want to find the most ideal place to live, it did highlight something rather disconcerting: New Jersey is not a very disability-friendly state.
According to WalletHub's ranking, nearby Newark and Jersey City ranked 143 and 149 respectively out of 150 cities. Though the ranking system is relatively subjective, it does illustrate why gaining access to disability benefits is so important for people with disabling conditions. With the help of SSDI and SSI payments, beneficiaries can offset some of what our state is lacking in affordable housing and nearby health care in some areas.
The hope though is that a ranking list such as this will help spark change is our state, eventually making New Jersey a more disability-friendly state down the road.
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